The Bells at Old Bailey

It was not until the fifth death in Long Greeting that Miss Tidy made up her mind to go to the police.



It was not a sense of civic duty that compelled her, but the arrival of two letters that made it clear her life was in danger. Better to say nothing of her intentions though—to anybody, not even her immediate circle: the staff of the Minerva hatshop, who worked for her;

Léonie, her old Breton maid; neighbour Kate Beaton, a crime fiction writer; Mrs. Weaver, the kind old antiquarian bookseller next door; the rector, who had buried four of the victims, or Owen Greatorex, the novelist of international reputation, inscrutable and disarmingly gentle. For who was to be trusted?



DOROTHY BOWERS (1902–48) was a champion of “fair play” mysteries, in which all the clues are cunningly displayed within the story. The daughter of a bakery owner, she attended Oxford University, and later became a History teacher, supplementing her income by compiling crossword puzzles. A member of the Detection Club, Bowers wrote five crime thrillers before

her early death from tuberculosis: Postscript to Poison (1938), Shadows Before (1939), A Deed Without a Name (1940), Fear for Miss Betony(1941) and The Bells at Old Bailey (1947).